IRM Latest! H Van Heaven - Unfitted H Vans Next For Accurascale IRM!

[flange lubricator]

1 hour ago, Past-Avenue said:

Thanks for all your information and I'm working on a 30 ton at the moment and we'll go from there. 

As leslie10646 said above I don't want to step on anyone's toes and I'll do my best to get the van as accurate as possible. 

Thanks to @jhb171achill ,Mayner and leslie10646 just to name a few of the helpful people on here with a welt of knowledge to help us produce model's with great accuracy and detail. 

Any pictures or information you can give me would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks 

Enda 

Great news Enda here is a nice picture from the O’Dea collection of some new “out of the box “ 30ton Vans at inchicore note the massive J hangers on them .                              

   https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtl

Edited May 24 by flange lubricator

[Mol_PMB]

21 minutes ago, flange lubricator said:

The fitted vans had a plate or spacer fitted  between the buffers and body to slightly extend them this was possibly done because they had instantor couplings fitted to reduce the distance between the wagons to avoid them banging against each other especially when running with passenger trains . 

Agreed. The green ones also had the instanter couplings replaced with screw couplings. 

I think this was the main justification for the different livery; it would have made them more suitable for coupling in passenger trains. If there was only one fitted H van, like in the image below by Roger Joanes, then the screw couplings from the adjacent vehicles could have been used, but if there were several H vans then having the vans fitted with screw coupling would have been much better. See Ernie's photo at the bottom of the page, with a long tail of fitted vans behind the passenger and mail coaches.

Screw couplings are a few inches longer than normal ones and extended buffers are normally fitted to vehicles with screw couplings (for example, when BR retro-fitted vac brakes and screw couplings to many of its goods vans, they also fitted longer buffers).

 

Most of the GNR fitted vans also had screw couplings and spacers behind the buffers as can be seen in these IRRS photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509081588

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53500778071

And in this one by Ernie, though it's a bit distant:

Though this one seems to be an exception:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54257197990

 

[Mol_PMB]

Here are some of Ernie's photos on Flickr showing 'normal' (not green) fitted H vans, with just plain 3-link couplings, not even an instanter.

On the other hand, this one has instanter couplings. And of course the green ones had screw couplings. Seems like there were plenty of variations!

 

[flange lubricator]

31 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Here are some of Ernie's photos on Flickr showing 'normal' (not green) fitted H vans, with just plain 3-link couplings, not even an instanter.

On the other hand, this one has instanter couplings. And of course the green ones had screw couplings. Seems like there were plenty of variations!

 

The last picture is an instantor coupling and some of the others are too head on to tell

[west_clare_wanderer]

9 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

That is a wonderful photo. Crying out to be modelled!

 

10 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

And in this one by Ernie, though it's a bit distant:

 

What type of van is that first one on the left?  The colours in this are simply superb. The muted weathered tones are so subtle. Nothing - from track, to loco and rolling stock, from the grass to the sky, even the background buildings - stands out in a garish manner. As a whole composition, capturing the time, it is stunning. 

 

Edited Sunday at 06:47 by west_clare_wanderer

[Mol_PMB]

17 minutes ago, west_clare_wanderer said:

That is a wonderful photo. Crying out to be modelled!

 

 

What type of van is that first one on the left?  The colours in this are simply superb. The muted weathered tones are so subtle. Nothing - from track, to loco and rolling stock, from the grass to the sky, even the background buildings - stands out in a garish manner. As a whole composition, capturing the time, it is stunning. 

 

The one on the left is an ex-GNR vac fitted van. The GNR van design evolved over the years with increased tonnage capacity and size, and only a small proportion were vac fitted. The later 1920s design was published as an Irish RCH standard, and they were also produced for the MGWR and GSWR/GSR with some variations. I have been collating data on these and maybe I should start a dedicated thread. Leslie used to make a kit for the GNR ones but I'm not sure wheher these are still available.

The GNR used the Briitsh Railways painting approach for its wagons: grey = unfitted and red-brown = fitted. Hence the appearance of a red-brown van pre-1970. Different to CIE where everything was grey, and later everything was brown, regardless of brakes. 

A couple more pics of the vac-fitted later version from Ernie - I have collated many more...

And from Brian Flannigan on Flickr, a GSR version (unfitted):

 

[west_clare_wanderer]

On 25/5/2025 at 8:12 AM, Mol_PMB said:

The one on the left is an ex-GNR vac fitted van. The GNR van design evolved over the years with increased tonnage capacity and size, and only a small proportion were vac fitted. The later 1920s design was published as an Irish RCH standard, and they were also produced for the MGWR and GSWR/GSR with some variations. I have been collating data on these and maybe I should start a dedicated thread. Leslie used to make a kit for the GNR ones but I'm not sure wheher these are still available.

 

Thank you Mol. You're an absolute gent!